Join us for a spot of Retail Media Therapy as Viv Craske and Colin Lewis discuss the biggest stories in retail media & commerce media. This podcast is brought to you by Grace & Co the marketing acceleration consultancy.
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ROAS. It's everywhere. In media plans. In ad consoles. In AOP meetings. In strategic decks. And, apparently, in the emotional lives of marketing and sales teams.
In this episode of The Retail Media Therapy Guide to Everything You Wanted to Know About ROAS But Were Afraid to Ask, Viv and Colin are joined by Mrunal Bhagat, Retail Media Lead at Pearson, to tackle the uncomfortable question:
Has retail media been speaking ROAS for so long that we've forgotten how to speak business?
Mrunal's answer is provocative: ROAS is a fraud metric.
Sales teams live in the commercial world - EPOS and sales performance. Marketing teams live in ad consoles and media metrics. These worlds don't always collide.
So what happens? They find something they can both understand: ROAS. As Mrunal puts it, it's the common denominator. Viv has an even better description: ROAS is the shoutiest person in the room. And if ROAS were a romantic partner? A toxic love language. Constantly sliding into your DMs asking: "Hey. Where are you? Want to talk about ROAS?" Meanwhile, incrementality and other potentially useful measures are sitting quietly in the corner, being left on read.
IN this episode, we talk about:
Why ROAS became the common language between marketing and sales
Why Mrunal calls ROAS a "fraud metric"
The difference between a post-media metric and a commercial decision framework
The Trojan Horse model
Customer wallet share
Incrementality
Share of model: Why AI and LLMs are changing product discovery
Why today's purchase journey looks nothing like it did 20 years ago
Why we need measurement frameworks designed for the future - not just better rear-view mirrors
ROAS SPECIAL EP1: Where did Retail Media ROAS come from?
mardi 8 septembre 2026 • Durée 15:06
ROAS SPECIAL EP1: Where did Retail Media ROAS come from?
ROAS. Four little letters that have somehow taken over retail media.
It appears in conference decks. It lives in ad-platform dashboards. Vendors love it. CFOs ask for it. Marketers stare at it while quietly wondering whether they’re measuring the right thing at all.
In this first episode of The Retail Media Therapy Guide to Everything You Always Wanted to Know About ROAS But Were Afraid to Ask, Viv and Colin get on the measurement couch to ask a deceptively simple question:
Why the hell did ROAS become the default language of retail media?
And, more importantly, should it have?
First: let's stop mixing up the words
Measurement, metrics, attribution and incrementality are related, but they are not the same thing.
Measurement tells you what happened.
Metrics give you ways of quantifying performance. ROAS is one of them.
Attribution tells you what gets the credit - assigning a sale or outcome to a touchpoint or campaign.
Incrementality asks the much more awkward question: what did your activity actually cause that wouldn't have happened anyway?
So why is everyone obsessed with ROAS?
The episode explores four big reasons.
1. Amazon.
For a long time, retail media was effectively synonymous with Amazon. As Amazon evolved into a major pay-to-play advertising platform, particularly around sponsored products, suppliers understandably wanted to know whether their increasingly expensive investment was generating a return.
ROAS made sense in that environment.
And then, apparently, we collectively decided it should make sense everywhere.
EP48 – Rise of the Ad Networks | With Dean Harris, Co-op Media Network
mardi 25 août 2026 • Durée 22:25
The Rise of the Retail Media Ad Networks
Retail Media Therapy EP48 with Viv Craske, Colin Lewis & special guest Dean Harris, Head of Co-op Media Network
Retail media is entering a new phase: as advertisers demand more scale, speed and simplicity, are aggregated “super RMNs” the answer to an increasingly fragmented market?
In this episode, Viv and Colin are joined by Dean Harris to explore the rise of retail media aggregation, following the launch of RMX by PlanApps from SMG and the Dunnhumby Network Alliance, bringing together retailers including Tesco, B&Q, John Lewis and Waitrose.
What we cover:
Why aggregation is happening now: Advertisers are being asked to achieve more with fewer resources, increasing demand for media that is easier, faster and more connected to buy.
Consolidation vs. curation: Rather than every RMN merging into one giant network, the future may involve curated portfolios of complementary retailers.
The “rocks, pebbles and sand” model: Large-scale walled gardens could become the “rocks”; differentiated specialist networks the “pebbles”; and aggregated networks the “sand” that efficiently extends audience reach.
The audience opportunity: The real value of super-networks may not simply be putting more inventory in one place, but enabling advertisers to reach valuable audiences across retailers and sectors through a single buying point.
Lessons from programmatic: Aggregation can bring efficiency and scale, but it can also put pressure on CPMs, pricing control, differentiation and retailer-client relationships.
The risk of the “squeezed middle”: RMNs without sufficient scale or differentiation may struggle to attract agency attention unless they find a compelling role within an aggregated ecosystem.
EP47 – Cannes Review: Walmart, Instacart, Albertsons, French Philosophy and squirrels
mardi 7 juillet 2026 • Durée 24:19
Retail Media Therapy — EP 47: Cannes Special
Fresh from the Cannes Lions Festival, Viv and Colin unpack the retail media trends that actually matter – no, not the rosé and boat parties, Colin!
First up: the return of the soap opera. Albertsons Media Collective and P&G launched 'Rico's Tacos,' a 24-episode, 15-second soap opera inspired by shopping data, complete with QR codes linking back to products. It's the TikTokification of retail media taken to its logical conclusion, and proof that in-store screens are ready for real storytelling.
We discuss Instacart's new immersive, shoppable video feed. Billed as inspiring content mid-shop, Viv thinks it's a risky distraction for shoppers.
OpenAI made a quiet Cannes debut, projecting $100 billion in ad revenue by 2030. Viv bets a billion dollars of his own money that it won't happen.
The standout deal: Walmart Connect's acquisition of French startup Vibe.co, the self-serve 'Google Ads of TV' that lets SMBs create and target connected TV ads in minutes. Colin sees this as true democratisation of television advertising.
Besides the messing around, reference to French philosophy, Brad Pitt and squirrels, Viv & Colin agree there's a thread tying all these stories together: Retail Media's creative era has arrived. After a year of data, pipes and AI, it's time for every network to ask: how do we build a creative studio?
EP46 – Publicis' $2.2 billion bet on LiveRamp... but will advertisers buy it?
mercredi 17 juin 2026 • Durée 20:14
In this special edition of Retail Media Therapy, Viv and Colin unpack the biggest retail media deal of the year: Publicis Groupe's $2.2 billion acquisition of LiveRamp.
Why would one of the world's largest agency groups buy one of the industry's most important data collaboration platforms?
We explore what the deal means for retailers, brands, agencies and retail media networks, and whether this is really an AI play... or something much more fundamental.
The conversation dives into LiveRamp's role as a neutral identity and clean-room provider, the strategic fit with Publicis assets such as Epsilon, Sapient and Marcel, and why identity resolution, data collaboration and measurement have become the industry's most valuable battlegrounds.
Viv and Colin debate whether access to customer IDs is becoming more important than access to media inventory, and examine the growing importance of customer graphs in an AI-driven marketing landscape.
They also discuss the challenges facing retail media networks and the potential risks to LiveRamp's neutrality now that it sits inside a major holding company.
A must-listen for anyone trying to understand the future of retail media, identity and data-driven marketing.
EP45 – The secrets behind Türkiye's Retail Media success with Kina Demirel, Mimeda
mardi 26 mai 2026 • Durée 20:01
Retail Media Therapy's special episode is live from Istanbul with guest Kina Demirel, Managing Director, Mimeda
Your host is Colin Lewis.
Recorded live in Istanbul at Mimeda's studios ahead of a major retail media event hosted by Mimeda for 500 brand representatives – one of the largest retail media gatherings in Turkey.
Kina Demirel has spent 30 years in retail, originally drawn to loyalty programmes while studying in the UK. On returning to Turkey she joined Migros, running their loyalty programme before expanding into marketing and media. Around 15 years ago, Migros began advertising to brands using customised segments from loyalty data – the precursor to what became Mimeda.
Mimeda was founded four years ago as a standalone retail media company, spun out of Migros. It is the first retail media company in Turkey. Mimeda has grown from 10-15 people at launch to close to 100 employees.
Key Insights & Takeaways:
Hybrid shoppers are your most valuable customers. Consumers who shop both in-store and online have significantly larger basket sizes. Mimeda actively encourages brands to run campaigns across both environments.
Integrated campaigns multiply effectiveness. Using a single retail media channel produces a meaningful sales uplift. Combining in-store and online channels doubles the effect. Integrated campaigns consistently outperform single-channel buys.
Don't abandon your customer at the store entrance. If a brand invests heavily in TV, social, and outdoor, they must also be present throughout the in-store journey. From entrance to exit, Mimeda's screen and digital shelf network ensures the brand stays connected to the shopper – because without that presence, shoppers get lost in the maze.
Search is the critical starting point online. 65% of online shoppers begin with search. Brands that are not visible in search are effectively invisible to the majority of online shoppers.
Influencer ROI can be proven. By linking influencer content directly to Mimeda's sales data via trackable URLs, Mimeda can attribute purchases to individual influencers – distinguishing high-performing talent from those delivering only awareness.
EP44 – Part2: Omnichannel success with Tesco Media's ex-strategist Florian Clemens
mardi 5 mai 2026 • Durée 17:44
From Tesco Media to Tomorrow’s Stack: Building Retail Media That Actually Works (Part 2)
With special guest Florian Clemens - ex-Director of Strategy, Proposition and Measurement at Tesco Media; built the global accounts team at Amazon Advertising.
Hosted by Viv Craske & Colin Lewis. Brought to you by Grace & Co, the marketing and commerce consultancy.
Part two of our special with Florian Clemens dives into the unsexy-but-critical machinery behind retail media: interfaces, platforms, ad policy, data sharing and measurement. We open with the tier-one question every retailer is asking - self-serve or managed service? - then move into how to design ad experiences without breaking the retail experience, why ad policy matters more than people think, and the big make-or-buy question facing every retail media network. Florian closes with a TLDR every retail media leader should pin to the wall: what is your theory of incrementality?
If you missed Part 1 on supply and demand, queue it up first...
About our guest
Florian Clemens has spent more than a decade at the heart of retail media. He built the global accounts team at Amazon Advertising and most recently led strategy, proposition and measurement at Tesco Media.
Topics covered
• Self-serve vs managed service for tier-one CPG advertisers
• Designing retail interfaces with ad placements built in
• Search placement density, relevance guardrails and AB testing
• Ad policy and sensitive categories (the “red face test”)
• Contextual ad rules: homepage vs in-category, browsing signals
• Data sharing posture and the LiveRamp question
• AI model training risks when sharing purchase data
EP43 – Omnichannel success with Tesco Media's ex-strategist Florian Clemens
mardi 28 avril 2026 • Durée 20:51
Episode 43: Building Omnichannel Retail Media (Part 1)
Hosts: Viv Craske & Colin Lewis
Guest: Florian Clemens – Former Director of Strategy, Proposition & Measurement at Tesco Media; former global accounts leader at Amazon Advertising
In this episode of Retail Media Therapy, Viv and Colin are joined by retail media veteran Florian Clemens to unpack the complexity of building a true omnichannel retail media business. Drawing on his experience at Tesco Media and Amazon Advertising, Florian breaks down the four major supply sources in retail media, the core principles for designing retail media propositions, and how retailers should think about demand – from large CPG partners to marketplace sellers and agencies.
This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation, focusing on inventory supply and advertiser demand in retail media.
Why Omnichannel Retail Media Is Hard
Building retail media on top of a retail business involves managing multiple moving parts simultaneously:
Ad inventory across physical and digital environments
Retail priorities vs advertising priorities
Technology and data infrastructure
Advertiser expectations shaped by large platforms
Florian emphasizes that retailers must coordinate many internal interfaces while building a credible media proposition.
The Core Framework: “Win–Win–Win”
Florian highlights a guiding principle for retail media strategy:
Every retail media product must work for three stakeholders:
Shoppers – Ads must enhance or at least not harm the shopping experience
Advertisers – Campaigns must deliver measurable results
EP42 – The Trade Desk Vs HoldCos beef; Airline Media; and how to get hired
mardi 21 avril 2026 • Durée 22:52
Retail Media Therapy – EP42
Hiring Boom, Industry Beef & The Rise of Airline Media
This week, Viv Craske and Colin Lewis unpack three major shifts in retail media:
A growing power struggle between holding companies and The Trade Desk
A surge in retail media hiring (and what it takes to stand out)
Why airlines are becoming retail media giants
Topic 1: The Trade Desk vs Holding Companies
A major industry conflict is brewing:
Omnicom joins Publicis, WPP, and Dentsu in investigating The Trade Desk
Official concern: transparency and platform fees
Unofficial theory: control and margin pressure
Key Insight:
Holding companies may want to:
Own media buying infrastructure (“the pipes”)
Monetize their own AI-driven targeting
Reduce reliance on third-party platforms
Is The Trade Desk still a partner… or now a competitor?
Topic 2: Retail Media Hiring Boom
Retail media is officially mainstream.
What’s happening:
26 new roles spotted in one week alone
Hiring across retailers, agencies, and platforms globally:
UK: Tesco, Ocado, Deliveroo, WPP
US: Macy’s, CVS, Dentsu
Europe: Douglas, ICA
Even banks launching media networks
Skills You Need to Win:
Commercial mindset + revenue focus
Retail and media expertise
Stakeholder management
EP41 – Mark Williamson of Costco on the power of saying 'No'
mardi 7 avril 2026 • Durée 28:05
Retail Media Therapy Episode 41
Costco, Membership Models & the Future of Connected Commerce
In this special episode, Viv Craske and Colin Lewis are joined by Mark Williamson (AVP Retail Media at Costco) to unpack how one of the world’s most disciplined retailers is approaching retail media – without compromising its core business model.
From Costco’s iconic $1.50 hotdog to its membership-first philosophy, this episode explores how retail media can drive growth while staying true to brand principles. The conversation dives deep into sales velocity, data strategy, and Costco’s partnership with Symbiosis (now part of DoorDash) to enable a new kind of connected commerce search.
Key Topics Covered:
The Costco Model Explained
Membership-first business model
Low-margin, high-efficiency strategy focused on delivering value
Ecosystem approach: retail + services
The $1.50 hotdog as a symbol of customer commitment
Retail Media, the Costco Way
Retail media must serve member value first, not just ad revenue
Built on strict guardrails and principles, not “quick wins”
Transparency & data governance
Privacy-first measurement
Saying “no” to misaligned revenue opportunities is a strategic advantage
Sales Velocity > Vanity Metrics
Core metric: sales per warehouse per week
Retail media’s job = increase product movement, not just impressions
Ad platforms have helped bake ROAS into the operating system. Set your ROAS target. Optimise towards your ROAS target. Report your ROAS.
Lovely and simple.
Possibly too simple.
3. Retail media was treated as performance media.
Retail media audiences are often close to the bottom of the funnel, so a performance metric like ROAS feels like an obvious fit.
But retail media has grown up.
It now spans on-site, off-site and in-store, and increasingly plays across the funnel. Different objectives and different funnel stages require different measures.
One metric to rule them all? Probably not.
4. Humans like simple numbers.
This may be the most powerful reason of all.
ROAS is easy to understand. A higher number sounds better.
And therein lies the trap.
The ROAS paradox
One of the central arguments in this episode is that optimising relentlessly for high ROAS can actually restrict growth.
Why? Because chasing efficiency can encourage brands to focus on people who are already highly likely to buy - rather than finding new customers, building penetration or supporting genuinely incremental growth.
You can therefore celebrate a beautiful ROAS number while quietly strangling your brand's growth.
The goal isn't to kill ROAS.
It's to stop treating it like the answer to every question.
Because if your only tool is a hammer, eventually every business problem starts looking suspiciously like a nail.
And sometimes it's actually a CFO.
What's coming next?
This is only the beginning of the ROAS Special Series of Retail Media Therapy podcasts exploring measurement.
Future episodes will dig into:
Why everyone is suddenly obsessed with incrementality
What iROAS actually tells us
What happens when we go beyond ROAS
Whether there are better metrics for modern retail media
Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM) - and whether it's the answer or just assumptions stacked on top of assumptions
How brands, agencies and retail media networks can make better measurement decisions
The strategic choices for RMNs: Retailers need to decide whether to build scale, own a specialist position, participate in aggregation, or potentially become aggregators themselves.
Why proposition should come before product: Dean argues that RMNs should define their proposition first and then use it to determine where to compete, lead or follow.
Key takeaway:
The future of retail media may not be about every retailer trying to become bigger. It could be about knowing exactly where you fit in the media plan.
For Co-op Media Network, Dean sees the opportunity in being a differentiated specialist: not necessarily the biggest network, but one that can make campaigns work harder.
The bigger question for the industry is whether aggregation can deliver the scale and simplicity advertisers want without triggering the same commoditisation and pricing pressures seen in programmatic media.
Listen in for a lively debate on super RMNs, audience-based buying, the future of retail media consolidation, and what retailers should do next.
About the podcast
Retail Media Therapy is hosted by Viv and Colin and explores the challenges, opportunities and big questions shaping the world of retail media.
— roughly a 10x increase in a few years. Teams span:
The Road Ahead: From Retail Media to Smart Media
Mimeda is evolving its positioning from retail media network to "smart media" – leveraging superior consumer data to serve as a strategic partner to brands, not just a media vendor.
Retailers – The activity must drive revenue and category growth
If any of these fail, the retail media product quickly breaks.
Retail Media Supply: The Four Major Inventory Sources
1. In-Store Media
2. Onsite & App Media
3. Offsite Retail Media
4. CRM & Loyalty Media
Example activation: Clubcard challenges
Customers earn points for increasing spend on a product
Brands fund the loyalty reward
Brands only pay if customers convert
Demand Side: Where Retail Media Revenue Comes From
Major suppliers generate a large share of revenue through Joint Business Plans.
Retail media can support broader category growth strategies.
Retail media becomes part of joint commercial planning, not just advertising.
Smaller brands often lack traditional brand budgets. Retailers must support them through:
Self-serve ad tools
Performance-driven retail media campaigns
Agency support similar to Amazon marketplace models
Marketplace Sellers
Marketplace sellers often assume retail media works like Amazon. But discovery dynamics differ. Example challenge: Shoppers may not search for categories like garden furniture on grocery sites.
Non-Endemic Advertising: Non-endemic brands represent a major future opportunity. But retailers must offer:
